


i think that i could be in love with someone like you

by thelilacfield



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, Romantic Comedy, Weddings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 09:59:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7679983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelilacfield/pseuds/thelilacfield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha and Clint are getting married, and Wanda is the maid of honour. Oh, and she might be falling in love with the photographer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i think that i could be in love with someone like you

**A/N:** Hey hey, I'm back with a multi-chaptered cheesy AU! :) Hope everyone enjoys this first chapter and is eager to see more, because I'm definitely excited to write this! Fic title from  _Shiksa Goddess_ from  _The Last Five Years_. Title of this chapter from  _Helpless_ from  _Hamilton_.

* * *

Since the age of eighteen, Natasha Romanoff and Wanda Maximoff have been there for every event in each other's lives. The happy - a first date, a new job, a perfect grade, graduation in dark robes and caps squashing carefully sculpted hairstyles. The sad - the death of a family pet, an argument with a boyfriend, a break-up, getting fired. The mundane - marathoning a new TV show, cooking the first Christmas dinner in their first apartment, driving down long roads to visit friends across the country, getting ready for exciting nights in companionable silence.

It only took a few hours of conversation in a tiny dorm room in the city that never sleeps to form a friendship that would last through three and a half years of living together, through the fight when Natasha said she'd be moving in with her boyfriend when their lease was up, through Wanda's numerous breakups - running the spectrum from barely making a dent in her self-esteem to leaving her crying for weeks - while Natasha remained with the same man through college and beyond, through times when they couldn't quite pay the bills or couldn't afford to eat anything but bread and baked beans.

The kind of friendship that both of them knew would last through their entire lives. So much learned and experienced together, their lives so firmly intertwined people would ask where the other was if one came to a party or restaurant alone.

It only makes sense that Natasha's wedding and Wanda falling in love would happen together.

* * *

The girl standing in front of Wanda in the line for the initiation desk seems to be alone, hair tugged into the kind of effortless messy bun picked out on every magazine cover, an entire LEGO Justice League dangling on keyrings from the zip of the bag slung casually over one shoulder. And she has Peter at one side, playing Temple Run on his phone, and Charles standing over her, squinting at the crowd with all the authority of another professor, suspicion in the purse of his mouth. "Name please," comes the voice of the boy sitting at the desk, a golden Adonis of a man who people have been whispering about for all the hours of waiting.

"Darcy Lewis," the girl says, rubbing at the back of her neck - not the cool customer she appears. A moment of movement, a manic jangling of metal, and the boy hands over a thick file, a key placed neatly on top.

"Room 318, your roommate's name is Karen Page." Darcy nods, and sets off at a quick pace towards the stairs and the sound of voices and music and footsteps on the concrete. And it's finally Wanda's turn, and she doesn't miss Peter's sigh of relief as she steps forward, and the boy smiles at her. "Hi, I'm Steve Rogers, the RA for the third floor of this building. Name please."

"Wanda Maximoff." Steve searches the drawers beneath his desk, and gives her a folder, resting the key neatly on top.

"This has the social schedule for this building, a campus map and blank schedules for you and your roommate to work out cleaning or anything else," he says, smile firmly in place. "My contact details are there if you have any problems. You're room 320, your roommate's name is Natasha Romanoff."

Charles has her enormous suitcase in hand, and Peter carries a bag with considerably less grace, though he perks up a little when he can look around at all the freshmen racing around the building, excitement humming on the air. Room 320 is still empty, but the door to room 318 is propped open with a cushion emblazoned with Princess Leia's face, and a pretty blonde girl smiles at Wanda as she hefts a box of books through the door. "Hi, I'm Karen," she says, and Wanda refrains from shaking her head at the joy in Peter's face. "We're obviously going to be neighbours."

"I wanna meet the neighbour!" comes a shout, and Darcy from the line appears in the doorway, a rolled-up poster in her hands. Without the backpack, she looks smaller and Peter is grinning appreciatively at her _Star Wars_ shirt. "I'm Darcy. Undeclared and unattached!"

Karen shakes her head, and both of them move back into their room. Peering inside, Wanda sees piles of clothes on both beds, places being found for photographs and ornaments, and feels a little less worried about where she'll put all of her things.

"This is so small!" Peter exclaims, letting the bag of clothes over his shoulder slither to the floor and bouncing onto the bed. "I think the bathroom at home is bigger than this!"

"Don't exaggerate, Peter," Charles says sternly, lowering the biggest suitcase gently to the ground. Wanda can feel her stepfather's eyes on her as she unwraps the picture at the top of her bag, her and Pietro with their mother when they were six, dark-eyed and dark-haired and beaming with the innocence of children at the camera. "Come on, let's leave Wanda to settle."

At that moment, a very pretty redhead peers through the open door and asks, "Is this room 320? I'm Natasha Romanoff." At Wanda's nod, she smiles and pulls the door further open to a collection of suitcases behind her, and Peter displays a heretofore unseen kindness as he darts forward to help her.

" _Peter_ ," Charles says, an edge to his voice. "Let's go. I'll buy you a real American burger." That gets Peter's attention even better than a pretty girl, and he gives a hasty wave and disappears, heavy footsteps along the corridor. Before leaving, Charles gives Wanda a brief hug and murmurs, "Call us if you ever need to," and leaves.

"Is that your dad?" Natasha asks, lining up her six suitcases in size order, looking at the narrow bed, the drawers on wheels that slot beneath the frame, the desk and shelving and the corkboard over the bed.

"Stepdad, and little stepbrother," Wanda says without elaborating. No need to tell her whole life story yet - they have to live together for at least a year. "I tried to tell them not to come, but Peter wanted to see what college is really like."

"He's left a little early in the day to see that," Natasha says, one corner of her mouth twisted in a smirk, and Wanda lets out a soft breath of a laugh. "You're not American, are you?"

"Shrewd," Wanda laughs, hearing the Sokovian inflection of her words, a sharp contrast to Natasha's easy American accent. "I'm Sokovian, originally. The accent hasn't gone, even though I've lived in England for four years."

"I'm Russian," Natasha says, and Wanda looks to her in surprise. "Originally. Foster parents moved me over here when I was sixteen, to a very suburban neighbourhood. Learning to sound American helped with the local kids."

They fall into a silence, Wanda not knowing what to ask next, and instead she turns to her bags, tipping clothes out onto the bed and starting to organise them by colour, predominantly black and red. A few of Pietro's oversized flannel shirts have made their way into her luggage, blue and green coiled like snakes around her skirts, and they smell more like home than Charles' cologne or Peter's numerous hair products or the detergent her father buys, and the dull ache of missing him sharpens in her chest. Piling the clothes into the drawers beneath her bed, she chooses the blue and grey one that he's had since they were fourteen and uprooted to England, the elbows worn down with age, and dons it over her grey tank top, imagining that it's her brother hugging her.

Jewellery next, out of the ziplock bags and onto the highly polished tree that Peter got her for Christmas, rings on the thinnest branches down to the delicate chains, chunkier necklaces coiled around the base, the whole display placed carefully at the edge of the desk. She clusters photos together at the other end. Her parents' wedding photo from 1990, the photo that lets her believe all the people who tell her how much she looks like her mother. The day she and Pietro were born, sleeping babies under the same blanket. The two of them through the years, so similar, until sixteen and Pietro's band and the silver hair. Peter's thirteenth birthday just last year, the three of them making faces at the camera and Peter's mother laughing in the background.

Natasha moves across the room, picking up the photo of her and Pietro before their graduation dance, arms linked, smiling into the camera. "Your boyfriend?" she asks.

"My brother." Natasha winces at her mistake, and Wanda laughs faintly. "He had a band in high school, dyed his hair to get more attention, and kept it because girls kept telling him it was sexy."

"Where's he?" Natasha asks, examining another picture - from their eighteenth birthday, the two of them sharing a bottle of wine, their father pretending to look disapproving and Peter smugly holding the smallest can of beer. "Is he in another building?"

"He's taking a gap year," Wanda explains. "Back in Sokovia, building houses for the poor and teaching children English. Our stepfather approves highly, he's a professor at Cambridge."

Natasha's eyebrows lift, as people's always do when she tells them about Charles' job, but she doesn't pursue the subject, and instead takes Wanda's wrist to pull her over to the other side of the room. "Help me organise my clothes?" she asks, gesturing at a tangled pile of colours, trailing scarves and individual socks. "I had a fight with my foster parents in January and have been couch-surfing through acquaintances' houses since. Never really had a chance to organise my things."

Turning to Natasha's clothes, Wanda lets herself get caught up in organisation, the sound of music from open dorm rooms humming through the walls and Natasha unpacking well-loved books with yellowing pages and disintegrating covers. Her collection is extensive, slotted into the shelves over the desk, and she sits cross-legged at the end of her bed, organising a collection of red lipstick into what looks like a refurbished test tube rack, and Wanda says as much. Natasha smirks and says, "It is. Pinched it from the classroom at my high school on my last day."

A knock at the door, and Natasha opens the door to Darcy and Karen both standing outside, Darcy's hair taken down from its bun into a mass of dark curls trying to dislodge the backwards baseball cap crammed onto her head. "We're your neighbours!" she says to Natasha. "I'm Darcy and she's Karen. Love what you've done with the place! My clothes are in a jumble on my bed. Are you guys coming to the freshers festival tonight, because you can buddy up with us if you are."

"I'm Natasha." Grabbing a specific dress from the pile, Natasha examines it critically then says, "Sure, we'll be there. How dressed up do we have to be?"

"Depends on how sure you want to be of getting some action," Darcy says cheerfully, plastic bracelets clicking as she spins around the room like it's her own. "But looking like you do, you could probably turn up in a garbage bag and the guys would come running."

"C'mon, Darcy, you wanted to check out the shower situation and hunt for guys," Karen says, pulling at her roommate's sleeve. Waving cheerfully, Darcy follows her out of their room, and Natasha looks to Wanda with one eyebrow raised.

"She seems lovely." Wanda giggles and sets Natasha's clothes into the drawers, shoving them under the bed with her foot and examining the collection of bracelets scattered across the college-issued comforter.

When her phone rings, Wanda almost leaps across the room to answer it. "Is that my baby sister?" comes the familiar voice, the accent identical to hers warming her heart even in those five words, and she mouths _It's my brother_ to Natasha.

"I'm only twelve minutes younger than you," she retorts, kicking the slightly open door shut and crouching down to flip through her clothes and look for something to wear to the first event of her college life.

"Still my baby sister. How's college life treating you so far? Was Charles unbearably clingy when he dropped you off? Did he lecture you about the dangers of boys and drinking?"

"Peter enjoyed gazing at the girls, and Charles backed off surprisingly quickly," Wanda answers, pulling a dress out and holding it up for Natasha's approval. She shakes her head, and it drops back into the drawer. "How's Sokovia?"

"Amazing, the leader of the project is this amazing guy from Italy, he's so enthusiastic and he's even getting the rich kids seeking out kudos for their CVs excited about it." He sounds excited, as much as he was when he first started up the band, and she smiles softly into the phone. "And all the food makes me feel like a kid again, it's so familiar. This one girl, Ella, picked Sokovia for a gap year by closing her eyes and pointing at a map, so I've been telling her all the local stories." She can hear the smirk in his voice, and rolls her eyes.

"Can't you let up for a minute, Pietro?"

"Never, dear sister." She laughs despite herself, doubly so when he adds, "Peter will be eighteen and trying to get girls too before you know it." When she calms down, he asks, "Is your roommate nice?"

"Her name's Natasha, you'd probably hit on her," Wanda answers easily, and Natasha laughs. "You should come visit sometime, then you can meet her and see our room. Anyway, lovely to hear your voice, but there's a fresher's festival that I have to get ready for, and you have to go flirt with this Ella."

"You know me so well," Pietro says, and hangs up. Smiling at the phone, Wanda doesn't hear Natasha's footsteps until she leans over and pulls an outfit from her selection of clothes, throwing it onto the bed.

Leaving the room an hour and a half later for the festival, feeling almost glamorous in the shoes Natasha immediately lent her after discovering they had the same size feet, Wanda grins as Darcy links arms with her and drags her towards the scent of barbecue and the sound of music and the clamour of hundreds of new students trying to have fun. Maybe college will be the best years of her life.

* * *

Where at first it's Wanda and Natasha, it then becomes Wanda and Natasha and Clint. He's the handsome blonde boy in the campus' most distinguished fraternity, the centre of the party Darcy's three night stand sneaks them into in an effort to warm her rapidly cooling feelings for him. While Karen turned down the party in favour of studying, Natasha and Wanda are both happy to join their neighbour, eager to see if popular media told the truth about where the wildest parties of college could be found.

The moment Natasha walks into the room, red hair and gold dress, every eye in the room turns to her. Clint is the first to approach her, a cup of beer in one hand and hope in his eyes, and she lifts an eyebrow at him and says, "I'm not a beer drinker."

"I have vodka in my room," Clint says, and that is it. Natasha doesn't come back to their room that night, returning the next afternoon wearing an oversized purple T-shirt over last night's dress, heels in one hand and happiness in her eyes.

He becomes another fixture of their room, part of it as much as the window that won't open all the way and the coffee stain on the carpet. Blonde and handsome and grinning, lounging on Natasha's bed in his graphic T-shirts displaying the arrow tattooed on his bicep, calling Wanda sweetheart and ruffling her hair and making Natasha happy. He graduates at the end of their first year, dragging her into the graduation pictures he takes with his friends.

In their first apartment, there's a picture that moves with Wanda when Natasha moves in with Clint and she finds her own, smaller place in Brooklyn. Steve is there, their RA who became their friend after they discovered that Clint's fraternity brother Sam was friends with him too and they became guests at his birthday party and connected. The five of them are standing in the sunlight, the three men wearing their graduation caps, Steve's mother holding the camera.

It's the start of the friend group who will watch Wanda lose her heart as a maid of honour.

* * *

**From: Natasha**

**I'm outside**

A pile of damp, crumpled tissues slide onto the floor when Wanda uncurls her legs from the table, the blanket Pietro bought her from Sokovia that first Christmas at college wrapped like a superhero's cape around her shoulders, and she pulls the door open to Natasha with snow on her shoulders and worry in her eyes, her biggest handbag slung over her shoulder and bulging. "God, sweetheart, I'm so sorry," she says, sweeping her into a tight hug.

Grabbing at tissues and locking her phone before Natasha can see the number of calls she's put through to Jamie's phone in the last few hours, Wanda kicks an empty plastic bottle off the couch and Natasha sits down, pulling three bottles of wine - two white, one rosé - from her bag and following with two family-sized bags of popcorn and a box of doughnuts. "You know me so well," Wanda says, voice constricted from hours of crying, and Natasha smiles softly, unwrapping her silver-grey scarf and coiling it onto the coffee table. "You look great."

"It's Friday," Natasha points out as Wanda sits down next to her and sets two wine glasses onto the table, lifting Wanda's feet into her lap and flicking at the bell on her Christmas socks - last year's present from Darcy.

The fact takes a moment to force its way through Wanda's break-up addled mind, then she groans softly. "Oh God, it's date night, I'm so sorry, go back to Clint."

"No way," Natasha says immediately, grabbing Wanda's ankles before she can move away. "You're just as important as my boyfriend, and I've known you longer."

"Barely," Wanda remarks, and Natasha laughs, filling their glasses and breaking open one bag of popcorn. "I'll make it up to you. I'll pay for your next date or something. I just...I really thought it was working."

"Jamie was an ass," Natasha says brutally, tossing pieces of popcorn into the air to catch them. "He's never treated you right since he took you to that dive for your first date."

"Not all of us can meet our soulmate a month into college, Nat," Wanda snaps, and Natasha withdraws. "I wanted this to work. I've already been through five guys, and nothing's worked out."

"This is your pattern, sweetie," Natasha says, draining her wine in one gulp and refilling. "You meet a guy who has a halo for the first few weeks, you fall for him, he meets us and we think he's a little lukewarm, then he cools off and ends it. Insert variations of you being the one to cool off, him cheating on you or him not even getting to meet us."

Sighing, Wanda turns on the TV to finish watching _Beauty and the Beast_ , the melody of the familiar songs as soothing as they've been since she was a child. Natasha leans against her, a warm presence, and she lets a few more tears fall. "Will you block his number for me?" she asks, her voice high with emotion, and Natasha takes her phone and unlocks it deftly.

"Done." She sets it in Wanda's lap, and squeezes her leg. "You want to watch _Lion King_ next?"

"Maybe we can invite Sam over to bother my asshole neighbours with his version of _Circle of Life_ ," Wanda jokes, weakly, but Natasha laughs loud enough for both of them and leans closer, the cold painting the window with whorls of ice as they watch Disney movies until the wine is gone and fall asleep tangled like puppies on the couch.

* * *

The group of five changes over time. Wanda and Natasha and Clint and Sam and Steve add Pietro to their ranks, over from his path to becoming a professor like his stepfather to see Wanda whenever he can. Despite distance, he fits into their group and Sam thinks he's hilarious, inducting him into their group after one night in the student union.

Pepper Potts becomes Wanda's roommate when she loses patience with her loud neighbours in her last year of college, and takes to Craigslist for a way out. She's moving from Washington to take a job in the New York office of Stark Industries and is looking for a roommate. At twenty-seven, she's a little older than the average of their group, but she's a good fit, organised enough to move a group of people who haven't quite moved on from college life into real adulthood.

Tony Stark, the thirty year old multi-millionaire orphan, is a notorious ladies man when Pepper is promoted to become his personal assistant, much to the horror of their group. But she says he's not the ladies man and party animal the gossip paints him as when she brings him to Clint's birthday party, and there's a clear affection between them, and she whispers to Wanda and Natasha that he's lonely and needs friend. And so he becomes one of them.

Hope Van Dyne is the daughter of the Hank Pym, the retired founder of Pym Tech, Stark Industries' rival company. While negotiating begrudgingly with the current owner, Darren Cross, Tony has Pepper at his side, who begins talking with Cross' deputy. Within an hour, the two of them have left the men arguing to go for lunch, and Pepper introduces them all to her within a week. Anyone who'll start the relentless teasing of Tony is an easy fit.

Maria Hill works with Natasha in journalism, praised almost as often for her ability to get the smallest titbits of information from people. She asks Natasha out for drinks one night, and she becomes one of them after the office Christmas party ends with Sam crashing in her apartment after drinking too much cheap wine. And so, the girl she begins dating in the autumn of 2015, pretty blonde Sharon, becomes one of them as soon as it becomes obvious they're serious about each other.

And that is their group of friends, formed over seven years. In the year Wanda and Natasha are to turn twenty-six, the eleven of them comprise three couples and five searching individuals. None so hopeful as Wanda, despite having chalked up ten unsuccessful relationships in four years of college, and a few more since.

Standing on the balcony of Tony's luxurious house in Malibu at his exclusive New Year's party, champagne in hand, listening to Sam and Pietro enthusiastically singing _Auld Lang Syne_ and wolf-whistling at Maria and Sharon, the newly-married Tony and Pepper swaying together, both so content, Wanda looks up at the fireworks soaring overhead and smiles as Steve puts an arm around her, kisses her cheek and pulls her back into the thick of the party.

She has no idea what the year will bring.

* * *

**Groupchat: 'Sam, we're far too old to call our groupchat 'squad'. No, don't you dare change it!' ~ Steve 'Funsucker' Rogers 2K16**

**[Clint Barton, Hope Van Dyne, Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff, Pepper Potts, Pietro Maximoff, Sam Wilson, Sharon Carter, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Wanda Maximoff]**

**AMERICA FUCK YEAH:** I still hate that name, Sam

 **Literal Saint™:** You didn't want the groupchat name to be 'squad', and it's not! Why are you complaining?

 **CAW CAW MOTHERFUCKER:** Who changed the nicknames again? I thought we agreed that was 100% too far for people our age?

 **Gay:** Oh, real mature, Pietro.

 **And Gayer:** Okay, change them back. Right Now.

 **Gay:** How come Maria gets to be gayer?!

 **Beez In The Trap:** Maybe because you're bisexual but she's a lesbian?

 **Actual Perfection:** Excuse me for having to look like I was texting because my ex sat in the same carriage as me on the train!

 **Jealous of Actual Perfection:** You dumped Crystal?

 **Actual Perfection:** Well, yes, but this was the one before the one before Crystal.

 **Literal Saint™:** And you guys call me the serial dater of the group!

 **Queen Nat:** Okay, for everyone in New York right now, brunch on Saturday morning in our usual spot? Clint and I will pay for coffee!

 **Queen Nat:** I like my nickname, that can stay.

 **And Gayer:** Gay and I will be there!

 **Gay:** I hate you why are we dating?

 **Actual Perfection:** I slept in the room next to you two after Tony's wedding, I could tell you why ;)

 **Jealous of Actual Perfection:** Don't be such a fratboy, P. I'll be there, Nat!

 **Literal Saint™:** Steve and I will both put in an appearance.

 **The Best™:** Tony and I will have two hours between the plane back from Hawaii and the plane to Malibu, so we'll come for a while.

 **Mr. Pepper Potts:** Pietro, why did you make this my nickname?

 **And Gayer:** I love it! Suits you so well, Tony!

 **AMERICA FUCK YEAH:** Oh my God, I'm erasing everyone's nicknames! Stop changing them!

 **Sam Wilson:** *whispers* Funsucker.

 **Hope Van Dyne:** I'll be in Washington with work, so I'll have to miss brunch :( Should be in NY in the next few weeks though!

 **Clint Barton:** Great, any ideas when specifically?

 **Hope Van Dyne:** The 17th through the 22nd, unless Darren decides to ship me off somewhere again.

 **Natasha Romanoff:** We'll organise something!

* * *

"Good morning, Wanda," comes Bruce's voice as Wanda escapes the slanting rain into the café, the bell over the door jangling frantically, and throws her sodden umbrella into the stand, unwinding the scarf of iridescent rainbow silk that Peter sent her for Christmas and shedding her layers. "Doughnuts and earl grey?"

"You know me so well," Wanda says sweetly, and he grins, dark curls a little wilder than usual. "How was last night's date with Betty?"

"Really great," Bruce says, voice moving into something dreamy and vague. "She kissed me when I dropped her home and already texted to make a date for this weekend."

"Of course she did, no self-respecting girl would let you slip through her fingers," comes Pepper's voice behind Wanda, and she turns to hug the couple coming through the door, both looking tanned and relaxed after their honeymoon in Europe. Natasha and Clint are already at their usual table in the back, and Wanda falls on them both even though she saw them barely a week ago, Clint ruffling her hair as usual and Natasha leaving an imprint of her pink lipstick on her cheek when she kisses it.

"Maria and Sharon are on their way, but Sam and Steve are running late," Clint says in betting when his phone buzzes, then checks it and pumps his fist into the air slightly. "Nailed it."

"You've been friends with Steve and Sam for too long," Natasha says, rolling her eyes fondly, and waves Pepper and Tony over, Tony burying himself in the breakfast menu and leaving Pepper to tell stories from their honeymoon, about the wonders of the food in Italy and the weather in France and the people in Spain.

"God, we're sorry, the public transport in this city sucks!" Maria calls as her and Sharon arrive, waving to Bruce and pushing through the tables of sleepy people drooping over mugs of coffee and plates of toast. Whipping down her hood, the most recent addition to their group, Sharon smiles around and takes the seat next to Tony, Maria's arm extended casually along the back in a mark of their easy intimacy.

After fifteen minutes of waiting, they order without Steve and Sam, grumbling to each other about Sam's consistently crappy timekeeping. When the final two finally arrive, they're glaring at each other as usual, the foundation of their friendship seeming to be constant irritation with each other. "Sorry we're so late, Nat," Steve says, leaning over the table to kiss her cheek and somehow manage to simultaneously glare at Sam. " _Someone_ was still in the shower when I arrived perfectly on time to pick him up."

"Well excuse me if I don't feel like getting out of bed at five o'clock in the morning on a Saturday to go jogging," Sam retorts, defiantly emptying a packet of sugar into his coffee despite Tony wrinkling his nose. "We can't all be Superman like you."

"You know you two bicker like an old married couple, right?" Pepper says, and laughter moves around the table at the disgruntled expressions on Sam and Steve's faces.

"So why have we all assembled so disgustingly early on a Saturday morning, Nat?" Wanda asks, lifting an eyebrow at the look Sam gives her and pointedly tapping his watch. "Is it just to irritate Sam?"

"I love it when we play that game," Tony says around a mouthful of croissant, and Sam glares at him.

"We have news," Clint says, eyes bright with joy, sliding an arm around Natasha and pressing a lingering kiss to her temple. Natasha beams up at him, lipstick mostly smudged off by her mug, and he looks around to make sure he has everyone's full attention before saying, "We're getting married."

There's a moment of silence, then an explosion of noise around their table. Sharon grabs Natasha's hand to look at her engagement ring, simple silver with one red jewel set into the slender band, Sam, Steve and Tony all start pounding Clint across the shoulders and back in congratulations and Pepper dives for her organiser, flicking through for numbers and names of everyone involved in her and Tony's wedding. "I can't believe this!" Sharon exclaims, her voice so high with excitement it could easily be called a squeal. "I thought you guys were going to wait until it was fiscally responsible!"

"I love it when you talk dirty," Maria deadpans over her mug of tea, and Sam lets out an undignified snort into his eggs.

"Well, Nat's doing great at work, she never stop telling me how Peggy sings her praises," Clint explains, fingers intertwined tightly with Natasha's, and Sharon smiles at the mention of her aunt. "And Phil just promoted me, which means I'm earning more, so why wait? We've been together for seven years, we've lived together for four, we're basically married already. It's time to throw a party for all our friends and show off how happy we are."

"He took me out to that jazz club we went to the night he graduated," Natasha says, and the happiness in her eyes brings back the memory of her rushing across the floor to Wanda twirling with Steve, her eyes so bright in the smoky darkness as she cried 'Clint told me he loves me!'. "After it closed we walked through the park, and I was pointing out Jupiter to him when he went down on one knee and said 'Natalia Alianovna Romanova, Tasha, will you marry me?'" She smiles at him and finishes, "And how could I say anything but yes?"

They kiss, and Wanda smiles at them. She's been there through all seven years, watching them grow as a couple and become so firmly intertwined into each other's lives it's hard to imagine them without each other. It's so overwhelming that tears spring to her eyes when Natasha turns to her and warmly says, "I want Wanda to be my maid of honour." Smiling wider, she adds, "Don't cry, you've known this was coming since you turned to me when I came back to our room after that first night with that shit-eating grin of yours."

"Sam's going to be my best man," Clint says, clapping a hand on Sam's shoulder. "You were the one who turned me around to look at the beautiful redhead who walked into our party."

"Because I wanted her for myself and had to get your approval," Sam says sourly.

"Rookie mistake," Sharon says. "Never ask a friend if someone you see in a party is cute, you'll turn around and the friend will be making out with them."

"I always thought you preferred blondes," Steve says, and gives a rare evil grin that has Sam glaring at him and everyone else laughing.

"And I have the perfect photographer for you," Pepper says triumphantly, setting her organiser on the table and clicking a pen into action to circle a particular entry. "He did the last Stark Industries charity ball, he was professional and talented and such a sweetheart."

"Your husband is sitting right here," Tony says with the petulant voice of a toddler denied a toy, and Maria laughs as Pepper gives him a reassuring kiss on the cheek while winking at her.

"We're going to have a little gathering at our apartment while Hope is in town, we've already told Pietro and he'll be through to see us," Clint says, arm resting comfortably around Natasha. "If you give us his number, Pep, we'll invite him and see if he can take some casual shots there so we can see how he does."

In the midst of the exchange of contact details, Bruce comes over with a tray between his hands, handing round the correct orders in a smooth manner that speaks volumes about the amount of time they all spend in his café, smiling sweetly. "Free refills in congratulations," he says with a nod for Natasha and Clint. "It couldn't have happened to a more deserving couple."

Blowing a kiss, Natasha picks up her coffee and squeezes Wanda's hand. Brunch descends into the usual teasing and silliness, but their hands remain linked throughout, and Wanda smiles into her food as she takes in every detail of Natasha's engagement ring. She gets to be there for her best friend throughout the process of her engagement and wedding, and it couldn't make her happier.

* * *

Standing in the airport in a sudden sunny day, Wanda is torn between holding up the hastily scrawled sign so Pietro will be able to find her and fanning herself with it. Trying to peer over the heads of so many tall people, her heart leaps with excitement when she recognises the turquoise suitcase zigzagging through a forest of legs, and drops the sign at her feet to fling her arms around her brother as he emerges from the crowds at a run. He lifts her off her feet, drawing the gazes of other waiting people, and she grins into his shoulder, so happy to see him in person.

"That's my jumper," he says when he lets her down, and she glances down at the sweater she snatched up when the sky was grey a scant few hours ago, reaching almost to her knees. "Stop appropriating my clothes."

"You leave them behind every time you visit, and they're cosy," she says in defense of herself, grabbing one of his bags and pulling it over her shoulder, heading straight for the exit and the car she left waiting. Looking at his hair, silver as it's been since he was sixteen, but with two inches of dark brown growing in, she cheekily says, "Your roots need doing, brother dearest."

"I'm very busy training to be a professor, I don't have time to get my hair done," Pietro retorts, shoving his suitcase into the trunk and climbing into the backseat. Steve twists in his seat to grin at him, clasp him in an awkward hug across their seats, and drives off. "Please tell me you're not wearing my jumper and leggings to Clint and Nat's engagement barbecue."

"I left my outfit at their apartment, I don't need to get dressed up to pick my brother up," she says, and smirks at the offended expression he affects. "Anyway, don't talk to me about looking awful, your hair seriously needs brushing."

"I've just been on a plane for seven hours!" Pietro retorts, running a self-conscious hand through his hair, and she laughs, settling easily back into their usual bickering as Steve guides his tiny car through the busy streets to Clint and Natasha's apartment.

Leaving Pietro to greet everyone, Wanda disappears upstairs to shower and change, the sunlight filling the room with warmth, music filtering through the open window from the garden, chatter and laughter echoing up. Sliding on the earrings Sam gave her for Christmas and rearranging her skirt one last time, she darts downstairs to find her friends already filling the garden, drinking lemonade and watching Steve and Sam at the grill.

"Wanda!" comes a shriek, and she finds herself with her arms full of Darcy, one of the few outside of their immediate circle of friends to receive an invite. Iain, her not-boyfriend for most of college and official boyfriend for almost a year, is more reserved as he shakes Wanda's hand, while Darcy loudly admires her outfit and talks excitedly about Clint and Natasha's upcoming nuptials. "I've been to six weddings in two years," she says. "It's so exciting seeing the old gang starting their new lives."

"Wanda, you look beautiful!" The shout across the garden echoes in the way only one man she knows does, and she runs into Thor's hug, grinning at him. Jane hugs her too, and the catching up with old friends fills the time until Hope suddenly starts fluffing up her hair with one hand and smoothing imaginary creases in her shirt.

"He's cute," Darcy comments suddenly, and Wanda follows her gaze to the man who's just walked into the garden, looking a little shy and wary. Tall, blonde, undeniably handsome, just the type of man to make her heart hammer against her ribs at the first glance. "But I'm spoken for, and he's not Hope's type."

"Some men transcend types," Hope retorts with a wicked smirk that makes Darcy laugh. "But I guess the maid of honour get first pick. Too bad the groomsmen are our friends and I know them far too well to be attracted to them."

"Wanda!" Natasha is waving her over, and she links an arm through Wanda and smiles as she reaches them, the sound of Sam swearing at the uncooperative grill above the music making Wanda laugh. "Come meet the photographer Pepper recommended."

As Natasha turns her around, Wanda's mouth goes dry and her heart seems in her throat when she comes face to face with the handsome man Darcy pointed out, her eyes flickering over him in a way that she is fully aware is the absolute opposite of subtle. "And this is Wanda, my maid of honour," Natasha says proudly, and Wanda holds out a hand on automatic pilot. "This is Victor, Pepper's recommendation."

"Everyone calls me Vision," he says warmly, and when he shakes her head her heart seems to skip a beat, and it's all she can do to remember to smile through the alarm bells ringing in her head and the instant fall into attraction.

Shit.


End file.
